Your outfit was a definitely standout one. I haven't seen such in 6 cons I've attended this year so I was interested to contact you and ask about it. Can you tell me who you are cosplaying and why you decided on this character ?
Totally! Well, my outfit started because my friends and I are DIE-HARD anime fans, and for about 4 or 5 years now we have been trying to cosplay an anime...we were thinking of Naruto, but none of the characters fit me. So, we decided on Bleach. It was too difficult and expensive for us to do an actual character (like Ichigo, or Chad or Orihime) so we did a fanfic move and made a character up that would fit in with the storyline, if we made a sidestory. So, my friend (who did not go with me to anime expo 2009 :-( ) was a vizard, and his girlfriend and I were Espada.
In Bleach, the Espada are the elite hollows that are like the Captains of the Shinigami (deathgods). My character that I made up, her name Is Chimera. They developed her when Aizen and his goons began experimenting on embedding a mixture of demons' souls into one body. They were hoping to have the best of the best with none of the flaws. The product? An unstable Chimera.
With more than one soul running through her body, violent outbursts and surges of power happened sporadically. Unfortunately, they had to lock her away due to the schizophrentic nature she had. Her released form shows her true nature (it's made up of a few different demon body parts; I can scan and email you the sketches for the costume you saw and the released form if you would like) but the costume you saw is how she would appear as an Espada. Her Espada number is Zero, because A-the Espada are numbered 1-10 ranked highest to lowest, and I couldn't just call her an Espada w/o giving her a number, and B- I can't give her a number already assigned to an Espada in the manga without stepping on toes. So, that's my character and her backstory. Lol. However, aside from being Chimera, the Espada, my character is also a succubus, which is the main demon that is usually in control of Chimera's personality: a Succubus.
Can you tell me about how you put the outfit together ? Was it difficult or easier than you thought ?
Well, my costume started off on paper, all of it. I made the entire piece from scratch. It too WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY longer than i EVER anticipated, lol. First off, I made the fabric parts out of about two yards of material, so first I had to cut the fabric to the specifications of the costume, which was very difficult, since I have very archaic clothes' making tools.
Then, it took me about ten hours to sew the front of the loincloth together, since I had to cut two identical pieces of fabric out of my material and stitch them together. Each of the back pieces, which i made to resemble the tails of a mens' tailcoat took me about five hours EACH to stitch together...then, I had to find hot pants, to secure all three seperate pieces together; it took me two days to find hot pants!
Now, hot pants are an essential part of a dancers' costume, and i went to several different dance shops! So, I ended up going to walmart and buying a pair pf girls' boyshorts and used those. It took me about an hour to stitch all three pieces to the hot pants. Now, that's just for the construction of the loincloth!
The top, with the skeleton hands, that took me a shorter time, but it was waay harder. I bought the skeleton hands because they were an open glove, which meant I could secure the hand easily around a bra of mine and make it look like it was the bra itself. I stitched each hand to a different cup and used some of the excess material from the loincloth to make some strips which i stitched to the part of the bra that snaps together in the back. It took me about four and a half hours EACH to stitch the hands to the bra.
The skeletal tail was one of the most expensive aspects of the costume, because i bought two of those rotating skull w/attached spinal cord props, cut the heads off, and attached the two spinal cords together. That took me like ten minutes, lol. The hair was a pair of horns I painted and added some trinkets to sewed directly into a wig. My eyes were white-out contact lenses, the teeth were Lucius' Dental Distortions, and the arms I made out of one of my old button down whoite collared shirts. The stilletto boots I wore I purchased plain, and glued fur and screwed spikes into the tor, for a more cloven hoof effect.
My staff I made our of an old mop rod attached to an extending window washing pole with some anesthetic tubing (I work at a veterinarian) and a fake sword chopped up to look like a scythe. It took me about thirty minutes all together to make the staff; it wasn't in the plans originally, however I needed a weapon at anime expo, and her original swords weren't cutting it. Pun intended.
So, all in all, it took me about thirty hours to HAND stitch my costume together, from scratch. The wings and claws i bought from an online site for another costume. This costume cost me about three hundred bucks.
Daaaaaang ! That's a long time ! I got to admit, you sort of creep me out when you started moving your head that weird sliding fashion...uh, not even sure really how to describe it but I do remember you were pretty much in character for the whole brief shoot. How did other people react to you at Anime Expo ?
The reaction of the folks at the Anime Expo was just like the folks which had seen the costume Halloween of 2008 at Universal City Walk; WOW. Lol, not to toot my own horn, but I spent more than a day and a weeks wages on this costume! I was like, wow, I'm warning other costume wearers, but I'm STILL getting attention! i guess i did something right, lol! Most people were astonished at how much time i was willing to dedicate to my costume, when i told them I hand made it. I also had a lot of creeped out reactions; i LOVE to creep people out.
I always like to go for a sexy/creepy costume. i like to draw people into the false sense of security that I'm a sexy costumer, and then they get closer and I smile, lol. I seriously couldnt walk ten feet without someone wanting a picture, or stopping me to ask me about my costume. The same thing happened the year before, at Universal City walk. People thought i was an attraction! I couldn't walk FIVE feet there without a photo shoot! It's GREATLY invigorating and refreshing to put all that time, effort and money and get such a big payoff. I also LOVE to stay in character as much as have an excellent costume. I am very flexible, and watch a lot of creepy movies, and generally if you can do weird things that others can't, it creeps people out.
Next Anime Expo my costume is going to be even better, and i'm going to be even creepier. AND, I may even do the masquerade, which means i will STRIVE to make my character so believable you will consider having to ask me if i'm in character, or if I'm really like that, lol.
Lol ! Sounds like I have to be back to check this out ! How did you get started into cosplaying and you got any favorites ?
I got started into cosplaying probably the second I heard it existed, no joke. It was like hearing about Dungeons and Dragons when I was seven, or DBZ when I was eleven...it opened up my eyes to a glorious new world! So I feel like i had no choice to cosplay once it had ensnared my interest.
I don't think i really have a favorite cosplay...I generally like each one for what it is. Because it's unfair to judge a cosplay if all the time an effort was there, but the outcome wasn't so spectacular.
Do you prefer group or solo cosplay ?
I prefer group cosplay, just because I believe the more, the merrier. I was the Mighty Ducks the first day of Anime Expo, and then the next day I was a succubus/bleach espads walking around with my minion, a vampire pirate, the Grim Joker, a wench and a ninja. And then we were joined by el Jeffe, our field agent. So, i don't even have to be with others of my kind (naruto with sasuke, bulma with vegeta, power rangers with Lord Zed) I just like being with others who are as enthused about this world as I am.
And finally the if you had unlimited time/money/technology, who would you cosplay ?
If i had unlimited time/money/tech, you cannot begin to FATHOM what I would cosplay! Just think in proportion...If i made the costume I did by HAND, in THIRTY hours for 300 BUCKS...if I had NO restraints at all?!?! You do the math...I think my head will EXPLODE if I try to imagine what I would do. But just know, that it would be P0WN CENTRAL. In other words, it would be the shiz-neez.
Demon vs Ninja 2
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